MARJAYOUN (Lebanon), July 22: Israel claimed ousting Hezbollah guerillas from a stronghold just inside Lebanon on Saturday after several days of fierce fighting.

Major-General Benny Gantz of the Israeli army said soldiers took control of Maroun al-Ras, a hilltop town overlooking both sides of the border, where six Israeli commandos have been killed this week.

Israel said it planned no full-scale invasion of Lebanon for now, but warned villagers near the border to leave.

In the town of Marjayoun, about eight kilometres from the border, cars packed with people waving white flags fled north fearing Israel will step up an 11-day-old war which has killed 354 people, mostly civilians.

Gen Gantz said Israeli soldiers inflicted dozens of casualties on Hizbollah. The militant group said on Saturday one guerilla had been killed but did not say where.

An Israeli army spokesman had said troops backed by around a dozen tanks and armoured vehicles had been fighting in Maroun al-Ras, one kilometre inside Lebanese territory, and found Hizbollah bunkers and weapons stores.

He said Israel might widen its military action, but was still looking at ‘limited operations’. “We’re not talking about massive forces going inside at this point,” he said.

Resisting growing calls for a ceasefire, the United States stressed the need to tackle what it sees as the root cause of the conflict — Hezbollah’s armed presence on Israel’s border and the role of Syria and Iran. “Resolving the crisis demands confronting the terrorist group that launched the attacks and the nations that support it,” President George Bush said, one day before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to head to Israel.

Israeli forces had urged residents of 14 villages in south Lebanon to leave ahead of more air raids.

“Do you know where we should go? Which roads are safe?” asked a veiled woman in the back of a white Mercedes crammed with people fleeing the border village of Tallousi.

Israel has built up its forces at the border and called up 3,000 reserves, but is wary of mounting another invasion only six years after ending a costly 22-year occupation of the south.

Already, 19 soldiers have been killed in the conflict. Another 15 civilians have been killed in Hizbollah rocket attacks.

Israeli air raids hit transmission stations used by several Lebanese television channels and a mobile telephone mast north of Beirut, cutting mobile phone services in northern Lebanon.

One LBC employee was killed. A nun at a nearby church said two French nationals were lightly wounded.

Israeli medics and the army said 40 Hizbollah rockets hit towns in northern Israel, wounding 16 people.—Reuters